Hamas wants West to end blockade
Mecca, February 9
Hamas urged the West today to accept a new Palestinian unity government but leading officials from the Islamist group said they would never recognise Israel nor abide by existing peace accords.

Pak will not occupy Siachen if India pulls out
Islamabad, February 9
An agreement on demilitarisation of Siachen appeared "imminent" with Pakistan assuring India that its forces will not occupy the glacier if Indian troops pull out from there, a media report said today.

$ 300-million war-on-terror bounty for Pak
Washington, February 9
The Bush administrating has earmarked $300 million for Pakistan from nearly $300 billion that the White House is seeking from the Congress for the global war against terror.

N-deal: Rice allays sceptics’ fears
Washington, February 9
The USA has said that it has broadened the non-proliferation regime by bringing India inside it through the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Jinnah not a freedom fighter?
Islamabad, Febraury 9
Sparking a controversy, a major Islamist party has refused to recognise Muhammad Ali Jinnah's contribution to the creation of Pakistan and dropped his name from a list of leaders it will honour at special conventions for freedom fighters.

$ 25-m greenhouse gameAirline tycoon Richard Branson (left) throws a globe in the air as former US
Vice-President Al Gore watches in central London on Friday. Branson announced a $25 million prize to the first person to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere in the battle to beat global warming. — Reuters
photo

4-yr-old girl married to 45-yr-old man
Islamabad, February 9
A four-year-old girl was married to a 45-year-old man in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to settle a dispute under a tribal custom.

Muslim executed for bid to split China
Beijing, February 9
China has executed a Uighur activist in a far northwestern city for attempting to ''split the motherland'' and possessing firearms and explosives, drawing condemnation from a human rights group which said evidence was insufficient.

Minorities rue Hindu’s killing
Islamabad, February 9
Alarmed at the growing incidents of kidnapping of Hindus in Pakistan's Sindh province, an alliance of minority organisations has said the killing of a Hindu engineer has led to "widespread insecurity" among religious minorities.

Anna Nicole Smith (39) at a news conference to announce the formation of her foundation to help men and women embroiled in high profile, controversial scandals, at Planet Hollywood in Beverly Hills, in this August 13, 1998 file photo. Former Playboy Playmate and billionaire’s widow Smith collapsed in a hotel room and died on Thursday in Florida, her lawyer said. Reuters
photo

Three cabinet ministers in Lanka sackedColombo, February 9Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse today sacked three senior ministers of his cabinet, triggering a political crisis in the country.Minister of Ports and Aviation Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of National Heritage Anura
Bandaranaike, and non-cabinet Minister for Ports Sripathi Suriyarachchi were sacked this
evening.

Sikh student contests no-hats ruleCosta Mesa (California), February 9A national Sikh-American advocacy group has called for an apology and a policy change from a local popular nightclub in southern California after it refused to allow a Sikh man enter because his turban violated the bar’s “no hats” rule.

Shashi Tharoor quits UN postUnited Nations, February 9UN Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor, who had unsuccessfully contested for the top post of the world body, has resigned.Former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who beat Mr
Tharoor, has accepted his resignation.

Mecca, February 9
Hamas urged the West today to accept a new Palestinian unity government but leading officials from the Islamist group said they would never recognise Israel nor abide by existing peace accords.

Hamas and its rival movement Fatah signed a deal yesterday to end factional warfare that has killed scores of Palestinians and to form a coalition, hoping this would lead Western powers to lift crippling sanctions imposed on the Hamas-led government because the group rejects Israel.

Israeli officials said the coalition agreement failed to meet conditions to end sanctions. The initial reaction from the United States and Europe was muted.

"We have agreed with the Saudis to market this agreement internationally. Our (Saudi) brothers are in constant contact with the Americans and Europeans," Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.

"They (the West) cannot ignore this agreement and impose their own conditions," he said. "The European Union should open a dialogue with this new government and this is the only way to have stability in the region."

Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, welcomed the agreement reached in Mecca but said Hamas shunned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's call for Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who will form the new cabinet, to abide by previous peace accords.

"We will never recognise Israel. There is nothing called Israel," he said. "We, in the Hamas movement, will not abide by anything."

Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan said, "The recognition is not an option at all, is not for discussion."

The agreement made no mention of recognising Israel, a requirement laid down by the quartet of Middle East peacemakers - the US, the EU, Russia and the United Nations - for lifting sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas trounced Fatah in elections last year. —
Reuters

Islamabad, February 9
An agreement on demilitarisation of Siachen appeared "imminent" with Pakistan assuring India that its forces will not occupy the glacier if Indian troops pull out from there, a media report said today.

Pakistan has assured India through diplomatic channels that it has no hidden motives and will not make any attempt to occupy the glacier, The Nation quoted Pakistani officials as saying. "This has been conveyed to India to give way to a breakthrough on the vital issue," it added.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the report.

Islamabad has told New Delhi that any fears of the snowy mountainous region being captured by Pakistani troops are unfounded, an unnamed official said.

He added that despite an "imminent breakthrough", an announcement in this will be made only during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan, which is yet to be fixed.

India has been insisting on "iron clad" authentication of current troop positions of the two countries as it is wary of a repeat of the 1999 Kargil experience when Pakistani troops captured the mountain heights vacated by India in the winters.

However, Pakistan refused to do so on the grounds that it would be tantamount to validating what it calls “illegal Indian occupation” of the glacier.
— PTI

Washington, February 9
The Bush administrating has earmarked $300 million for Pakistan from nearly $300 billion that the White House is seeking from the Congress for the global war against terror.

The White House is seeking $294.8 billion to fund global counter-terrorism operations, including $99.6 billion for fiscal year 2007, $ 145.2 billion in 2008 and $50 billion in 2009.

The majority of the funding has been allocated to the Pentagon but more than $9 billions has been sought from the State Department budget.

The White House has asked for more than $36 billion for the State Department, a 22 per cent increase from its 2006 appropriation and much of this is slated for transformational diplomacy initiative that the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been talking about in her testimonies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over the past two days.

It is being pointed out that the State Department's foreign military financing initiative provides security assistance to help allies defend their countries from internal and external threats.

If the $ 4.5 billion for the programme is approved it will have $2.4 billion to Israel, $1.3 billion to Egypt, $300 million to Pakistan, $200 million to Jordan and $15.7 million to Indonesia. — PTI

Washington, February 9
The USA has said that it has broadened the non-proliferation regime by bringing India inside it through the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that even the IAEA believed that with the Indo-US nuclear deal, India had come inside the non-proliferation framework.

"Just on the India point, because I think it's a very important point, many people, including Mohamed El Baradei (the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency), believed that by finally dealing with the India anomaly, if you will, that we've actually broadened the proliferation regime ... to put India inside the non-proliferation regime," Rice remarked.

She was responding to Senator Barack Obama who expressed concern that that the "structure" of non proliferation "may not sustain itself over the long term" given the Indo-US nuclear pact and that observers had claimed the NPT was "fraying" around the edges.

"... given the deal that was reached with India, I think there is concern that the structure that had been in place may not sustain itself over the long term if we don't make sure that we're gathering up some sort of international consensus about what the rules of the road are ... I know that the administration takes this seriously, but I don't think that there has been as systematic an approach as I would like to see," Obama said.

Responding to Obama's point on India being an "anomaly", Rice said, " Well, I think that could be the case..But, of course, there's a very specific circumstance of the India-Pakistan, South Asia, context" and added that the "most likely problem" would come from an "Iranian" nuclear weapon.

Islamabad, Febraury 9
Sparking a controversy, a major Islamist party has refused to recognise Muhammad Ali Jinnah's contribution to the creation of Pakistan and dropped his name from a list of leaders it will honour at special conventions for freedom fighters.

The Jamaati Ulema Islami (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, has said Jinnah -- officially recognised as the Quaid-e-Azam or father of the nation -- had done nothing worth remembering.

Jinnah and his companions had not done anything for Islam and will not be honoured at special conventions the JUI will organise to highlight the services of "real freedom fighters", the party's information secretary Maulana Amjad Khan was quoted as saying in Lahore by the Daily Times today.

"Jinnah was not imprisoned during the Independence struggle. That is why he did nothing worth remembering," Khan said, adding the JUI will honour only leaders who sacrificed their lives for the creation of Pakistan or were imprisoned by the British.

The JUI will organise the conventions in its stronghold Peshawar and other cities this year. The decision to ignore Jinnah was taken at a meeting of the JUI's executive council in Lahore a couple of days ago. Maulana Fazlur Rehman presided over this meeting, Khan said.

Besides being the opposition leader, Rehman is the general secretary of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an Islamist alliance. The JUI heads the government in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and is a key coalition partner in Balochistan. — PTI

Islamabad, February 9
A four-year-old girl was married to a 45-year-old man in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to settle a dispute under a tribal custom.

Thirteen people, including a panchayat member, were arrested in Dera Islami Khan town in this connection and the court yesterday sent them to judicial custody, the "Dawn" reported today.

Those arrested included Mahboob, the man to whom the girl was married, the girl's father Alamsher, and the panchayat leader Saifur Rehman.

An FIR was registered against them on Wednesday.

According to the paper, the girl's uncle Farroq had eloped with a woman after which a panchayat slapped a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh on him. He was also asked to stay away from the area for five years.

However, the couple was later married. The panchayat met again and this time they decided to give the hand of four-year-old niece of Farooq to Mahboob, paternal uncle of his wife, to settle the issue. — PTI

Beijing, February 9
China has executed a Uighur activist in a far northwestern city for attempting to ''split the motherland'' and possessing firearms and explosives, drawing condemnation from a human rights group which said evidence was insufficient.

Ismail Semed, who was deported to China from Pakistan in 2003, had told the court a confession had been coerced, but he was executed nevertheless on Thursday in Urumqi, capital of the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Friday quoted his widow, Buhejer, as saying.

''When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole in his heart,'' Buhejer told the US government-funded radio.

A spokeswoman for the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court said a group of people had been executed on Thursday but said she had no knowledge of specific cases. The Xinjiang regional government declined to comment. — Reuters

Islamabad, February 9
Alarmed at the growing incidents of kidnapping of Hindus in Pakistan's Sindh province, an alliance of minority organisations has said the killing of a Hindu engineer has led to "widespread insecurity" among religious minorities.

"It is sad and shocking to know that (Geeresh) Kumar was killed ruthlessly and his decomposed body was found by the police in an industrial area of Kotri in Sindh two days ago," Chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) Shahbaz Bhatti said in a statement here.

Kumar was reportedly kidnapped by activists of militant outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and later murdered. Bhatti said the involvement of jehadi outfits in the killing of Kumar was “worrisome and has led to widespread sense of
insecurity”. — PTI

Colombo, February 9
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse today sacked three senior ministers of his cabinet, triggering a political crisis in the country.

Minister of Ports and Aviation Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of National Heritage Anura Bandaranaike, and non-cabinet Minister for Ports Sripathi Suriyarachchi were sacked this evening, political sources here said.

The ministerial sacking comes a few weeks after President Mahinda Rajapakse inducted 18 parliamentarians from the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and swore them in as cabinet, non-cabinet and deputy ministers, increasing the number of ministers holding portfolios to 108. —
UNI

Costa Mesa (California), February 9
A national Sikh-American advocacy group has called for an apology and a policy change from a local popular nightclub in southern California after it refused to allow a Sikh man enter because his turban violated the bar’s “no hats” rule.

“This is blatantly discriminatory,” said Rajbir Singh Datta, executive director of Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDEF). “You’re trying to have fun with your friends, and you’re forced to stay outside because of your religion.”

On January 25, Sanjum Paul Singh Samagh, a 24-year-old medical student living on campus at University of California, Irvine, arrived at the Pierce Street Annex bar with about 20 friends. The bar owner refused to let Samagh in, saying that the bar did not allow entry to anyone wearing a “headgear”, according to Samagh and his friends.

Samagh, an American-born Sikh, said he tried to explain to the bar owner that his black turban was a centuries-old religious symbol and not a fashion statement. However, the bar owner refused entry saying that headgear was headgear, religious or not.

Samagh and his friends aren’t letting the incident go. They have implemented a boycott against any medical functions being held at the bar.
PTI

United Nations, February 9
UN Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor, who had unsuccessfully contested for the top post of the world body, has resigned.

Former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who beat Mr Tharoor, has accepted his resignation.

Mr Tharoor’s contract as UN Under-Secretary-General for Public Information expires at the end of February.

Mr Tharoor was among several top officials whose resignations have been accepted and his Chef-de-Cabinet Vijay Nambiar said they would go when their contracts expire. Mr Ban had sought the resignation from all Under-Secretaries- General and Assistant Secretaries-General to give him flexibility of choosing their team. Tharoor is being replaced by Kiyotaka Akasaka of Japan. —
PTI